PORT ANGELES — Jesse Colin Young, a singer-songwriter known for his solo work and for his music with the Youngbloods, will perform in Port Angeles on Saturday night.
Young, 76, is touring the West Coast. He and his eight-piece band, with son Tristan Young on bass, play the classics plus tracks from a brand-new record to be released in late summer.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave., range from $18 to $40, or $10 for youngsters 14 and younger.
For information see www.JFFA.org, and to purchase in advance, visit the Joyful Noise Music Center in downtown Sequim or Port Book and News in downtown Port Angeles.
“I think I must be out of my mind,” Young said during a phone interview from his home in Aiken, S.C.
That’s his wife Connie’s hometown, and it’s where he penned the fresh songs. The album promises tracks including “For My Sisters,” inspired by the Women’s March.
“Connie said, ‘I wish you would write a song for my sisters,’ ” Young said.
“I went upstairs. And out it came … I thought, maybe the channel’s open.”
Young also has written “They Were Dreamers,” an ode to the people who came on the Mayflower, to those who fled the Irish famine — and to the “dreamers” of now, brought into this country as children, undocumented. The album’s working title is “Dreamers” in their honor.
In concert, Young, perhaps best known for “Get Together,” travels back and forth in time, stirring into his set “What’s Goin’ On,” the Marvin Gaye lament. He performs “Songbird,” “Sugarbabe” and one titled “For Orlando.”
His first album, “Soul of a City Boy,” came out in 1964, to be followed by many more including “Young Blood” in ’65, “Together” in ’72, “Song for Juli” in ’73 and “Light Shine” in ’74.
Young and his band are coming to town as part of the Juan de Fuca Foundation for the Arts’ Season Concerts series; Dan Maguire, the foundation’s executive director, has been an ardent fan of the Youngbloods and later Young’s solo work since the early 1970s.
He and Carol Pope, office manager at the Juan de Fuca Foundation, happened to witness the same Youngbloods concert in Bellingham in 1973.
“Aside from being a rock star, Jesse always had solid credentials as a talented singer-songwriter,” Maguire said.
“Although he hasn’t made a lot of new music in recent years, his back catalog is certainly a work of art, and art is timeless.”
